


Family

by blackkat



Series: Falling [2]
Category: Harry Potter and X-Men: The Movie crossover
Genre: Family, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-15
Updated: 2011-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-26 05:58:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat





	Family

One of the levels of Judeo-Christian Hell reserved for the particularly wicked most likely took on the form of seventh period on a Friday right before Spring Break, in a boarding school for super-powered teenage mutants, Harry reflected, his eyes starting to stray longingly towards the clock on the wall.

 _Again_.

And the starting bell hadn't even rung yet.

By sheer force of will, Harry kept his eyes on the timeline of European history he was sketching on the blackboard—admirable, really, especially considering that no one else was looking at it. Chaos reigned in the class behind him—somewhat controlled, but mostly just chaos. One of the students had created gusts of wind, and was whirling paper airplanes on kamikaze dive-bombs at other students. A girl who could spit acid was engaging in a spitball war with a boy who could change size and duck behind his classmates' belongings. Harry could smell the faint sizzle as the acid ate through things, and tried to ignore it.

Over in the corner, Bobby Drake (Iceman) was snapping and snarling with John Allerdyce (Pyro), the ignored—overlooked? Unheeded?—sexual tension between them all but suffocating. Harry rubbed a hand over his face wearily, knocking his glasses askew. Ever since Rogue had gotten her "mutant cure" and gone back to wherever she was from, the two boys had been clashing like…well, like fire and ice, and Harry _knew_ that it wasn't just because of jealousy over the girl having kissed both of them before she left. Normally, he would have let them work out their problems by themselves, but seeing the way John was fingering his lighter and Bobby was twitching his fingers, leaving them to their own devices would probably result in high casualty counts, extensive property damage, or both.

They weren't even the worst of it. _Everyone_ was distracted, or experimenting with their abilities, or talking loudly, and it looked as though Kitty Pryde was trying to surreptitiously fish the paper with the class's next exam out of the file cabinet in the corner.

" _Why_ did I feel the need to be useful again?" Harry muttered, mostly to himself, because the students were about as far from listening as was humanly—or superhumanly—possible. After falling for so long, he prided himself on his patience, but this—

This was on the verge of something that would turn Mother Theresa into an axe murderer.

A glob of acid flew past his left cheek and splattered against the blackboard with a sharp hiss. Harry stared at it as it ate through his neat diagram of the French feudal system, and wondered if there was still time to hand in his resignation to Professor Xavier and flee the country. He'd leave a note for Remy and Logan, of course—probably something along the lines of "fleeing for my sanity; will return after seeking psychiatric help"—and he wouldn't be gone _that_ long.

One of the paper airplanes turned a cheerful loop-de-loop and plummeted to its death in Harry's coffee cup. He revised his previous thoughts. He wouldn't be gone _forever_.

And then the bell rang.

"Oh, thank Merlin," Harry muttered, called, "All right, eyes up front, please."

There was no change. The shapeshifter boy shrank down to the size of a mouse and darted behind a girl's bag. A globule of acid just missed him, splattering over the cloth, and the bag's owner shrieked. Loudly. The windows trembled dangerously as a little bit of her power edged through, making the sound border on supersonic.

In the corner, John flicked the cover off of his lighter and pulled the flame into his hand, leaping to his feet and then sending it streaming at Bobby. Bobby, of course, froze it right before it reached him, and ducked out of the way of the next shot as he sent ice whirling at the other mutant.

"Attention!" Harry called, raising his voice in class for the first time that he could remember. He ducked a stray fireball, and then another splatter of acid. "Class has—Mr. Allerdyce, Mr. Drake, that's enough! Ms. Pryde, don't put you hand through—Mr. Colt, Ms. McCrery, if you would—"

No one was even pretending to listen. Harry gritted his teeth, prayed to whatever vindictive deity was listening, and then flicked his hand. A Shield Charm burst to life right between Pyro and Iceman, just in time to stop a fireball and a stream of ice, even as two more wrapped themselves around the acid-spitter and the size-changer. The acid fizzled out weakly on the former and the boy ran into his without realizing it was there, and jerked back with surprise as he returned to his original size.

" _Enough_ ," Harry said, and even though it wasn't loud, every student in the classroom froze, looking back at him with wide, guilty eyes. The wizard simply narrowed his eyes at them in return. "You are all well aware that when Professor Xavier says your abilities may be used in class, this is _not_ what he means. Ms. McCrery, Mr. Colt, practice your skills at another time. This is a classroom, not the Danger Room, and you are teenagers, not toddlers. Mr. Pine, leave the air currents— _and my coffee_ —alone or I shall recommend that you be partnered with Professor Logan for the next survival exercise. Mr. Drake, Mr. Allerdyce, I realize that you are teenage males and therefore incapable to addressing any matter even remotely connected to your feelings, but _for the love of Merlin_ , if you are going to flirt, at least do so in a manner that is vaguely conducive to the acknowledgement of mutual attraction. Do you understand me?"

Silently, the wind dropped away, and one of the paper airplanes dropped gracefully to the ground beside his foot.

Harry arched an eyebrow and simply looked at them.

There was utter, absolute silence throughout the class.

"Lovely. Thank you," Harry said, and it only dripped sarcasm a little bit. No more than his chalkboard dripped acid, at least. He sighed and put a shield to keep it from spreading any further, then turned back to his lesson. "All right, today we're moving on from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, to the beginnings of feudalism in other parts of Europe. And Ms. Pryde, if you don't remove your hand from there _this instant_ , I will assign you to kitchen cleanup duty until you graduate, so help me Merlin."

Behind him, Kitty withdrew her fingers from the filing cabinet, looking guilty, and quietly cursed having a precog as a teacher. Harry ignored that with a roll of his eyes, and had just opened his mouth to continue when a sharp knock sounded at the door. He frowned, casting a quick look into the future as the Time Turners shifted though his blood, and then froze, shock tumbling through him. Of all the people he had expected to seek him out…

He should have expected that _someone_ would come, really, he just hadn't thought it would be _now_. After having been in contact with Hermione for almost a year already, he had simply suspected that everyone who would normally come looking for him were too busy living their own lives. He'd been fine with that, too, because he was happy here at Xavier's school and hadn't sought any of _them_ out, either. Harry was different after falling through time all those years, being cut off from everyone and everything that he'd ever known. And now…

Now he was happy. There was no reason to go looking for more. Not when all of his friends were old, and had grey hair, and Harry had stopped mourning his loss of them a very long time ago, even if they weren't dead. It was…odd, really, too think of Hermione as old, and Minister, and Ron as an adult, and everyone else he knew as having moved on, while Harry himself hadn't changed—physically, at least—at all.

"Come in, Remy," he called softly, then cast a glance at his class and sighed. They all looked vaguely shell-shocked. Harry supposed it was from him raising his voice, something he had never done before, and waved a hand at them. "All right, get out. I'll see you after the break. Read the chapter in your textbook. I want a thousand words on the implications that the Roman Empire's end had for local rulers and the land's power structure, to be handed in first thing when you get back."

There was a collective lunge to gather their things and then bolt out the door.

One the stampede had passed, Harry's lover leaned around the doorframe and quirked a grin at him. "Workin' dem har', _mon cher_?"

Harry gave the former thief a tired smile. "Well, I would have, but somehow I get the feeling that this will be more productive. At least this way, I can reassign it and double the word length when they come back and don't have it done."

Remy chuckled and came over to press a kiss to his cheek. "Well, if ya be done emotionally guttin' de students, der be someone at de gate who's lookin' for ya."

"So I see." Harry returned the kiss, but a litter farther over and down an inch or two, so that their lips met in a soft, intimate press that slightly thawed the hard knot of worry in his gut. "I suppose we should go before Logan gets annoyed or does something rude and my mysterious visitor turns him into a toad."

Tangling their fingers together as they left the classroom, Remy arched an eyebrow. "Dat can happen? Den why 'ave ya not done dat when _notre loup_ bein' 'specially dumb, hmm?"

With a chuckle of his own, Harry thought about turning Logan—big, hulking Logan, who would as soon cheerfully rip off and arm and beat you with it as apologize for anything—and shook his head. "Transfiguration was never my strong point. And besides, if we went by him needlessly endangering himself, he'd have to stay like that permanently."

Remy ceded the point with a snort and opened to front door, leading Harry across the front lawn and down to the wrought iron gates, where the tall, muscular form of their third was waiting with a younger, smaller, slighter figure who kept fidgeting nervously. Though, Harry allowed with a slightly indulgent smile, anyone would fidget when Wolverine glowered at them like that.

"Hello, Teddy," he said quietly as they approached.

The boy's head shot up, and locked on to Harry with uncanny accuracy as he stared. Something panged in Harry's heart, something he had thought long since accustomed to the grief of loss, when those amber eyes settled on him. _So like his father's_ , Harry thought sadly, but managed a smile anyway, because Teddy's hair was the same bubblegum pink that Tonks had always favored.

"Uncle Harry?" Teddy asked cautiously after a moment. "Are you…Harry Potter?"

Harry blinked for a moment, and then realized that to an outside observer, he must seem no older than Teddy himself. Young, still, even though many years had already passed. He smiled again, and it was more genuine, easier. "Yes, Teddy. It's me. How are you? What brings you here?" He was half-tempted to look into the immediate future and find the answer for himself, but clamped down on the urge. It was an invasion of privacy, really, and Harry didn't like to do it too often.

"Right." Teddy looked sheepish for a moment, and then offered, "Hermione said that I could find you here, and since she and Ron talk about you so much, I just…wanted to meet you, I guess. Hermione was so happy when she found out her letter had reached you, and…"

Remy chuckled, then leaned over and kissed Harry quickly on the cheek. "'Arry, _mon chèri_ , Gambit an' Wolverine be on a mission dis afternoon, so be seein' ya later, hmm?"

Harry managed to pull his eyes away from his suddenly blushing godson to glance at his two lovers, and smiled, taking a quick look ahead to make sure there was no tragedy approaching. "All right. There's going to be a sniper on top of the building to the northwest, looking to pick you off as you're leaving, but the mutant children they're holding are fine."

Logan finally unfolded from his stiff, arms-crossed posture and shook his head with a snort. "Shorty, we can handle ourselves," he said dryly, rapping his knuckles gently against Harry's skull. "This ain't our first mission, you know."

Harry caught his hand and pressed it to his cheek with a smile. "Of course not," he agreed. "I'm just keeping you prepared. If either of you ends up in the infirmary three days before our anniversary, it will be a bit of an inconvenience, don't you think?"

Remy leaned in to kiss him one more time, then hooked an arm through Logan's and pulled him back towards the mansion with a parting grin and a quick wink. "Hol' dat t'ought, _mon amor_. We be back shor'ly, and den we celebrate, _non_?"

Harry watched them until the mansion's door closed behind them, and then turned to his godson with a smile. "Over here," he said gently, guiding him towards one of the benches near the wall. It was concealed from prying eyes by a few strategically placed bushes, and—

Occupied, it seemed.

"Mr. Drake, Mr. Allerdyce," Harry said in amusement as they scrambled, horrified and red-faced, to put their clothes to rights. "I'm glad to see that you're taking my advice, but maybe somewhere more discrete would be better?" He didn't wait for them to answer, but steered a slightly mortified Teddy towards another spot that was thankfully vacant.

"So? What is it?" he asked as they sat down. "You came all this way to meet me?"

Teddy shrugged, the flush fading from his cheeks as he studied the grass between his trainers. "I…guess? I mean, everyone has always said that you were an amazing person, and brave, and selfless, and a hero, and that it was a tragedy that you had died before I could really meet you. But then Hermione said that you _weren't_ dead, and I…I thought it might be nice to finally have a family again."

Harry looked at him, and for a moment he could almost see himself in school, looking for somewhere— _anywhere_ —to fit in and be normal. Looking for a family he could belong to, that he _wanted_ to belong to. "Andromeda?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Dead," Teddy answered, a little too quickly, as though he still couldn't quite bring himself to believe it. "Two years ago, now. I was living with Ron and Hermione and their kids during the times when school wasn't in, but now I've graduated. They've been really great to me, but…"

But they weren't family. Harry could hear that addition as well as if it had been spoken. However well Teddy knew them, no matter how much he liked them, they were still strangers, a little bit, and that was enough to keep a _house_ from being _home_.

"Well," Harry offered, injecting a light note into his voice, because Teddy looked like he needed the cheer, "I've got an extra set of rooms, according to my contract, and if you'd care to stay here for a while. Get a Muggle education, if you'd like. There are plenty of brilliant professors here, and if you pass your self off as a mutant, no one will ask anything." He smiled. "You might even get a codename, if you're lucky."

Teddy looked up at him, surprise in his face. "You're pretending to be a mutant?" He couldn't seem to decide how he felt about that, if his expression was anything to go by.

Harry smiled at him, reaching over to touch his arm. "It's not exactly a lie," he said gently. "I'm not just a wizard anymore, I'm…different. And while America doesn't exactly have a Statue of Secrecy, it's easier to let them believe what they want. Those who matter most to me already know what I am, and that's all I need."

Teddy wrinkled his nose as he thought, and then nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense." He hesitated for a moment, and then shot a glance at his godfather. "Those two men, they were…?"

Harry laughed and rose, offering him a hand up. "Come on," he said, smiling. "Let's go get you settled."

There was a warmth in his chest that had been absent for a long time, and it felt as though it were about to burst and spread to ever part of his body, the feel of _family_ and _needed_ and _together_ that he usually only got with Logan and Remy.

 _A family_ , he thought, tasting to word as it hovered on his tongue. _We'll all be a family. How grand is that?_

* * *

"Ya be happy, _mon cher_?" Remy asked a little breathlessly, as Harry slumped over him, trembling and breathing hard.

The wizard rolled his eyes and cast his lover a look from underneath his lashes as he carefully lifted himself, letting Remy slip out of him. He collapsed onto the bed between Remy and Logan, the latter of who looked like he was already halfway to sated exhaustion and grunted softly as Harry curled against his side.

"Yes, Remy," Harry said dryly. "I just had the best marathon sex of my life. You think I would be _un_ happy?"

Remy chuckled at that, pressing himself closer to nip and lick his way into Harry's mouth, one hand drifting down to cup his oversensitive organ gently. Harry hissed into his mouth, and he grinned against the wizard's throat as he sucked a mark onto the fair skin there. "Dat's no' what Remy be meanin', _mon cher_ , an' you know it. Teddy be makin' ya happy, havin' 'im here. Be ya missin' dat o'er world so much?"

"No," Harry said immediately. "If I missed it, I would have at least gone back for a visit. But…it's nice, having family. You and Logan…you're all I could ever want, and you know that. But Teddy…I promised to take care of him, when I was named his godfather. It rankled a bit, when I couldn't keep that promise because I kept falling. And now…I can. It's wonderful, really."

With a low growl, Logan rolled on top of both of them, pinning them to the bed, and glared through half-open eyes. "Afterglow," he said, and coming from anyone else, it would have been plaintive. Wolverine just made it sound like a threat. "Enough talking. Sleep." He waited a moment to see if they would comply, and when they did, he relaxed with a gusty sigh, right between them. Remy and Harry exchanged amused glances and wriggled out from underneath him, only to be caught by strong arms and pulled back against his sides with a warning growl.

Harry laughed softly and burrowed closer, breathing in the musk of sex and the smell of contentment and the wildness that was Logan, and let himself go lax against the furnace-warmth of Logan's body. On Logan's other side, Remy did the same, and they shared a tired smile as they relaxed into sleep.

"Caught Iceman and Pyro necking in the bushes," Logan said suddenly, one eye slitting open to take in Harry's suddenly, perfectly innocent expression. "Ya wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?"

Harry smiled angelically at him. "A little emotional trauma is good for them. Besides, what else is family for?"

* * *


End file.
